The Social Life Of Islam: Sufi Shrines In Urban Pakistan

How do they constitute relationships between neiglibors, friends, relatives, strangers. and various urban groups? In other words, how is Islam woven into and how does it shape the social fabric of urban Pakistan? The Social Life of Islam addresses these questions through an ethnography of Sufi shrines in Pakistan's second largest metropolitan center, Lahore. It argues that Sufi shrines' position as a vital hub of metropolitan public life is critical to their capacity to serve as a conduit for Islam. Connecting urban studies with the study of religion, this book explores the minutiae of social interactions in everyday life that constitute Sufi shrines as a key social, political and religious space for the mediation, contestation and reproduction of social relations in the city and for producing a distinct embodiment of Islam.

Essential for students of anthropology, religious studies, sociology, and anyone interested in understanding Islam in contemporary Pakistan.